CIV26

The mysterious title refers to the 72nd Intervarsity Choral Festival held in Canberra over the last week or so.  Shilong put out a call for orchestral players to play with the choristers for the final concert in mid-January to end the 2 week festival.  Given the main work was Brahms German Requiem, I was a ring-in.  It was all brought together over those 2 weeks with the final concert of ~150 in Llewellyn on Saturday, no doubt preceding a celebratory pub party thereafter.  Thus is the way of intervarsity events, at least from what I remember.  It was a long program.  The main work was the German requiem under Olivia with Andrew Fysh and Evangeline Osborne soloing; delicate and desperate and driving over 7 movements totalling ~1 hour.  What a thrill to revisit this work in the luxurious surroundings of Llewellyn Hall.  Then a second half with Phantom of the opera, Slavonic dances, Sabre dance and Brahms again with his playful but still challenging Academic Festival Overture, all under Shilong, and a final work, Everything sings, with the choir and Anthony Smith accompanying.  The first week was only 2 calls for strings while the second was busy with 1 for orchestra, 3 for orch & choir and the final concert.  But the thrill of Brahms stays and this was memorable and concentrated and interestingly with an orchestra thrown together from several local ensembles.  And to top it off, we were recorded by an engineer with 40 professional releases to his name.  Looking forward to hearing that.  A worthy performance of several great works.

Vita et Mors was the final concert of the Canberra Intervarsity Choral Festival 2026 (CIV26).  Shilong Ye and Olivia Swift (conductors) various led the choir and festival orchestra through Brahms x2, Lloyd Webber, Dvorak, Khachaturian and a final song by TC Takach accompanied by Anthony Smith (piano).  Soloists for the Brahms German Requiem were  Andrew Fysh and Evangeline Osborne (vocals).

A new year starts

It seems an absurd combination but the start of my New Year back in Canberra comprises playing bass for Brahms and a Choral Festival, mixing/mastering a Spanish Celtic folk trio and attending an all-ages, afternoon Tay Tay Tribute performance just for fun, and maybe just for a bit of understanding about what is this phenomenon.  And it's all fascinating.  So what of Tay Tay?  It was fun, as tribute bands can be.  The band was keys/guitar, bass and drums with a woman up front as Taylor Swift, complete with numerous costume changes.   They played a string of tunes over 2 generous sets.  There were oodles of girls and plenty of accompanying mothers and just a few fathers.  And plenty of bracelets and costumery and good happy vibes.  I learnt something of the TS phenomenon, something of the commercial success and the changing image and the varied styles and followed the lyrics of a few songs displaying a central focus on relationships matters.  The tunes can be catchy and the lyrics even sometimes nicely polyrhythmic.  But Bowie, Prince and others had similar developments and I maybe preferred theirs.  And let's face it, there's never been another Beatles.  I think it was her synth-pop from Reputation which most surprised and interested me.  And I just enjoyed the company, the chatty people at tables, the shared tables that were still in place and the girls lining the stage.  The Harmonie German Club is nicely ordinary but it's a decent space with decent audio and German beers, so welcomed.  A decent all-ages Sunday arvo gig.  Great fun.

The Tay Tay Tribute was at the Harmonie German Club featuring Mia Isoardi (vocals, guitar, banjo) as Taylor Swift with support by Carlton Sparks (keys, guitar, vocals), Justin Miranda (bass) and Chris McCaig (drums).

An alternative to Smiths

AvantGarden in Houston reminds me of our much beloved Smiths Alternative in Canberra.  It's in an old building (for Houston, perhaps ~1910?) and it hosts weddings and events in several spaces and has a program of burlesque and poetry and hip hop and open mics and a weekly jazz jam.  The jam is not early (9.30pm-2am) and the bar was noisy even before the jam and leading in was the guitarist on a DJ deck and the host band started at 10pm.  It wasn't exactly what I expected but interesting.  Dancing and loud chatter from the people in the room before.  Videos happening.  A crew of jazzers arriving in the early hour and perhaps later.  The band was the Houston Ensemble / Cory Wilson Quartet and they seem to host each week.  I didn't get names but I assume Cory Wilson is the tenorist.  But this was very electric, very loud.  Jazz-fusion-cum-blues to my ears.  Noisy and in your face, apt after the guitarist on his DJ deck. A screaming guitar, strat, pentatonics and blues-rock feels.  Polyrhythm solos from drums and a clashy broken cymbal.  Flashy 6-string bassist playing unison heads with sax and nifty solos.  Fingerstyle.  I'm thinking, not likely too many sit-ins will be up to the 6-stringer; maybe 4-stringers bring their own.  Tenor sax, effective and often understated or maybe better to say sparse as in considered, modern not bop.  I noticed a trom offstage who was merging and a flautist had put his instrument together in anticipation and their were plenty of faces that looked keen.  I thought I caught tunes by Ornette (When will the blues leave?) and Herbie and perhaps a very disguised standard but not too sure.  I chatted with a drummer next to me who was there for his first outing.  All in this avant, boho space with a noisy audience and a stream of sit-ins who were quiet and obviously anticipating.  We were limited in time so didn't see the jammers really get going and it would perhaps have been an uncomfortable challenge anyway, not having played 6-string or even e-bass for yonks.  But then it was probably a reversion to standards and blues for the jam, anyway.  Suffice to say vibrant.